Thanks to Andy Hedgecock for his review of “Mad Hatters and March Hares” (edited by Ellen Datlow) in Interzone 274.
“Ellen Datlow will have soon edited 100 anthologies. An impressive achievement in itself, but one accentuated by the positive critical reception those books have elicited. In her introduction to “Mad Hatters and March Hares”, Datlow reveals her lifelong fascination with Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and the enduring pleasure she has taken in the art and films they have inspired. So it’s just as well that this is a stimulating, rich varied collection of stories….there’s whimsy, dirty realism, surrealism, dark fantasy and metafiction.”
Hedgecock describes “Moon, and Memory, and Muchness” by Katherine Vaz as a tour de force. Of Kaaron Warren’s “Eating the Alice Cake” that it’s a harrowing tale but an emotionally gripping and necessary one. Stephen Graham Jones’ horrific “Alis” is a tightly controlled piece of writing and Jones produces an interesting riff on the notion of minatory mirror and its inverted realities.
“In terms of drawing inspiration from Carroll’s Alice and gheading off somewhere entirely unexpected, Priya Sharma’s “Mercury” sets the bar exceeding highly…using fiction to explore the boundaries between madness and imagination is an activity fraught with pitfalls relating to coherence, plausibility and taste, but Sharma’s liminal tale wanders between the debatable lands of historical fantasy and historical realism with quiet assurance.”
“Mad Hatters and March Hares is an impressive and consistently original collection that includes several exceptionally good short stories – then contributions from Priya Sharma, Jeffrey Ford and Richard Bowes are three of then best stories I’ve read in the last couple of years. Another rich, varied and entertaining anthology from Ellen Datlow.”
priya sharma fiction 